The_Open_Door_deel1

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concession area of 100,000 acres. It was the first time a
concession area had ever been granted to an agricultural company
in this Western Province of the Hinterland ("Lofa County" after
1965). However, this concession area, situated in the northwestern
corner of the country, close to the Sierra Leonan and
Guinean borders, was never developed, probably because of the
absence of transportation facilities and means of communication,
and was forfeited after eleven years, in conformity with Article
X of the concession agreement (29).
The concession area in the Central Province (now Gibi Territory)
was on the contrary very favourably located: just beyond the
Monrovia - Totota highway, then the major paved road in the
country (30). As there existed a growing number of Liberian rubber
farmers in this same area, the company's management was attracted
by the idea of buying up the output of these Liberian farmers
to process it in the factory which it planned to establish,
and to export the result of its processing activities over the
roafl to Monrovia where it would be shipped. In an interview with
the company's General Manager, M. Boissevain, the latter
complained bitterly that these prospects were never realized due
to the fact that three years later the Liberian Government
granted a concession for the buying and processing of Liberian
produced rubber in the same region to a Dutch-owned company,
which established subsequently a rubber processing plant nearly
opposite the gates of the Salala Rubber Corporation (see below)
(3D.
This agreement had been drawn up along basically the same lines
as those with BFG and with LAC, though a few differences exist
(besides the ones already mentioned). The concessionaire resp.
the Salala Rubber Corporation ("Salala") had to start paying
rental within 24 months after the effective date of the
agreement, and upon a total of not less than 20,000 acres (6
cents per acre per annum), further, the company was granted the
right to use its infrastructure ("the Accessory Uorks and
Installations") not only for the purpose for which it would be
built, i.e. the concession, but also for the purpose of
providing transportation and communication services to the
general public, at rates to be agreed upon, whereas BFG and LAC
first needed approval of the Government to do likewise; Salala
was granted a 14 year period of income taxes exemption after
which it would pay income taxes of general application and,
lastly, if in case of arbitration the two arbiters (one
appointed by each party) could not agree on a third arbiter - if
needed - the latter would be appointed by the Supreme Court of
Liberia (instead of by the President of the Yale University as in
the concession agreements with BFG and LAC). The other articles
of the concession agreement with RCM-Amsterdam and NRC-Hamburg
resp. Salala which granted the right to engage in agricultural,
mining, and other activities (notably the harvesting of timber)
vrere identical with those of the agreements concluded with the
B.F.Goodrich Company and the Liberian Agricultural Company.